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She worked as a background designer at Halas and Batchelor studio beginning in 1951, at a time when women were unheard of in creative leadership roles in British animation. Nonetheless she took the leadership of the animation unit of Guild Television Services in 1957. During the 1960s, she worked as a freelancer, but joined TVC in 1967 to work as design director on the Beatles film Yellow Submarine, in which she had a cameo.[1]

The 1970s, when de Vere was an associate of the Wyatt Cattaneo commercials studio, were the beginning of her most productive period; the short films she made then "began her career of collecting prizes at every international festival at which her work was seen".[1] In the 1980s and 90s, assisted by her son Ben, she created works for Channel 4, including her best-regarded works The Black Dog (1987, 19 min.) and Psyche and Eros (1994, 26 min.). She continued working on children's television series until the end of her life.[1]

The Guardian characterized de Vere as "not only the first woman auteur cartoon film-maker in Britain but also the best", thanks to her proficiency in animation technique and her design sense; and her film The Black Dog as representing "the same sort of advance in animation that The Marriage of Figaro was in opera".[1]